Iria

The Wall Street Journal today reported that TiVo fell 7.5 percent in early trading today, as DirecTV's plans to abandon TiVo reverberate through the market. The relationship has been publicly souring for over a year, especially after DirecTV Vice Chairman Eddy Hartenstein resigned from TiVo's board of directors over a year ago. Oh, and did I mention that a week later, DirecTV sold 3.4 million shares of TiVo? Indeed, the writing has been on the wall for a while now, and some analysts saw this train wreck coming the minute News Corp got their fingers on DirecTV in 2003.

Questions still remain about how DirecTV and TiVo will weather the change. J.P. Morgan Securities said late last month that they expect DirecTV to rapidly wind down their TiVo promotions, perhaps as early as this month or next. This may, in fact, be true, but only if DirecTV is willing to risk irritating plenty of customers.

DirecTV has a large base of TiVo users who simply won't tolerate overnight change, and new customers certainly aren't the best people to bait and switch. What am I on about? Well, DirecTV is still marketing TiVo for the moment— something that would be utterly idiotic to do if they are planning on rolling out a new box next month. No, I thoroughly expect DirecTV to support their existing customers and the new folks that are signing up for a couple of years, while they roll out and perfect their own proprietary solution in some test markets. Provided that the TiVo Guide information is kept up to date, there's not a lot to worry about if you're a standard TiVo customer, at least for the time being. New customers should be aware though that there is a possible that your shiny new DVR you got for free by signing up for a year's worth of service will be a red-headed stepchild in only a matter of months.
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Read More / Source: Ars Technica